A University of North Carolina academic counselor is facing death threats and skepticism from her administration after releasing research showing between 8% and 10% of the school’s football and basketball players read below a third-grade level.

In a CNN story last week about her research, Mary Willingham said she knew of a former UNC basketball player who was unable to read or write. “And then she found he was not an anomaly,” the report said. “Soon, she’d meet a student-athlete who couldn’t read multisyllabic words.”

UNC released a written statement saying it didn’t believe Willingham’s story and that it wasn’t able to corroborate her research.

“We do not believe that claim and find it patently unfair to the many student-athletes who have worked hard in the classroom and on the court and represented our University with distinction,” the statement said. “Our students have earned their place at Carolina and we respect what they bring to the University both academically and athletically.”

Willingham told CNN that she’s received at least four death threats and more than 30 other “alarming messages.” “Not people who disagree, people who put in the subject or body (of the e-mail) straight-up hate speech,” she said.

Willingham said she’s also gotten notes of support from other academic advisers around the country.